| Author | Message | ||
| GOBBLENOW |
I have just returned from hunting in Alabama and Florida for the last five days. I have friends there who are kind enough to let me hunt on some of their places and it is a nice "spring training" trip to re-learn(sometimes the hard way) all the lessons you tend to forget from year to year. The good news first. I killed a really nice bird in north Florida, and have attached some pictures of the spurs below. True, legitimate one and one-half inch spurs on the bird. I got the bird from two gobblers which flew/walked in at daylight. I was sitting in between 5-6 gobbling birds at daylight. This bird had a 10 1/2 beard, but was not over 20 pounds(if that, as I did not weigh it)...I had been in gobbling birds for two days in some serious swamps and had been messed up by deer on three occasions the first day in Fla, so this was a good reward fro perserverance.. I used a Nitro 4x5x7.5 in the NEF 10, with Kick's 680..was not much of a contest at 28 yds...the Fla birds gobbled pretty good sporadically through the day.. I had already hunted in Alabama before going to Fla , and the hunting in south central (Lower Alabama, or "LA")Alabama was very tough. Birds were henned up there already and they gobbled from the roost one to three times and when they hit the ground they did nto say a word for the rest of the day. I did everything I knew to make one gobble for 13 hours of daylight for three days there , but never succeeded. I have found that non-gobbling on the ground to be typical of the late march hunting there as I have experienced similar conditions in past years..I cannot blame the birds for not gobbling as it was too hot the first two days and too cold the last...anyway I am in the book... | ||
| Freddy McGuire (Vaturkey)
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 This is a 10 gauge shell...  | ||
| TScottW99
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Congrat's GN!!!! Man those are some nice looking spurs! Sounds like you had one heck of a "spring training". Scott | ||
| Freddy McGuire (Vaturkey)
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Congrats GN on a great bird and a great hunt! | ||
| Tburt |
Wow!-those are nice! | ||
| Big Bird |
Congratulations on the successful hunt and thanks for the pictures. Awesome spurs. That must have been an old bird. | ||
| VA Hen |
GN, Congrats on the great hunt and awesome bird!!! | ||
| HODY |
GN congrats on the bird, but man you really got me goin now. Cant wait till I can make that first yelp or fly down. | ||
| turkeypicker |
GN, Good job!! Great spurs. Did the bird look like an Osceola? long legs? black wing feathers? I called in 6 jakes for my brother-in-law the other day and he took his first wild turkey. His bird looked just like an eastern to me, and I am way on down the pennisula in what's supposed to be pure Osceola country. I called in 5 jakes and a longbeard today and they were clearly Osceola--those long "grasshopper-like" legs and exxagerated chest are hard to mistake. Tomorrow morning is the last day of my FLA trip. I have passed shots on at least 15 jakes (I lost count after a dozen), but have no longbeard. Birds have been henned up as you described for Ala.--gobble a few times on roost and then shut up. Today I walked from my wife's parent's house to hunt an 80-acre tract (about all fields). No luck early but I hit a hot bird who lost his hen at noon along a liveoak/cow pasture treeline. My dream come true but I blew it bigtime!!!! I was on the edge of the property boundary I could hunt. At one point I could have made a 40-yard shot on the bird, but he was across a fenceline on property I didn't have permission for (talk about temptation). The woods were cattle woods and very open, and I knew I needed to put that decoy out but I got in too big a hurry. After coming into view and not seeing the hen he ambled off behind a knoll and hung up at 60 yards -- gobbled non-stop for 2-1/2 hours at least. I went silent on him (scratching the leaves -tried it all) and he closed some, but I could never see him. This was actually the first good gobbling bird I've worked in the week I've been here in FLA. Called in one other silent mature bird to 70 yards for my brother-in-law, but I think he spooked it by moving his gun at the wrong time (he's beginning hunter). I'm glad your trip was successful. I've had a great time even though I have not bagged a longbeard. I've also made some connections for some more private land opportunities. Maybe one day I'll get enough land to put together a quality Osceola hunt. I count my trip a success anyway. | ||
| GN |
TP and others, thanks for the congrats. I do not think this bird was an osceola (or cross) as I have some other photos that show the red colors i nthe bird pretty distinctly(plus barred wings)...I did post some photos last year of a bird I took which may be an osceola descendant, as it had some soild black wing feathers , which I have never seen before(if interested,see a post entitled"started theseason early" about March 25 or so of last year if you wan to go to the old posts abd see those pictures ). TP- sounds like yo uwere eally in the game and just caught some bad breaks on that gobbling bird yesterday...wow..I have spent 2.5 hours with a gobbling bird and it is th most frustrating thing in the world , yet I remmeber some of the details of those non-kill hunts more than the details of ones where a bird comes in immediately and you take it. | ||
| maytom |
Very impressive set of Hooks!!! Way to go!! | ||
| wgbl |
what kind of boots are in the picture-were you hunting in waders? | ||
| GN |
you have good eyes. the boots ae sort of a prototype of a weelington-like boot made by Chota boots, a Knoxville based manufacturer/importer of flyfishing and duck hunting and other hunting footwear. They are made of lined neoprene. The linings wicks away moisture you would get in a pure rubber boot and they have a molded in lacing system to get to a great ankle-fit. Very light. Pefect for southern swamps, wading knee high creeks etc. I think the current model is sold through Herter's or Dunn's under their label maybe. |